"The principle of collage is the central principle of all art in the twentieth century." -- Donald Barthelme (1931-1989)

Friday, September 5, 2008

Sarah Barracuda

From TMZ (h/t Snapped Shot): "Ann and Nancy Wilson are pissed at the Republican Party and have fired off a cease and desist letter to the McCain/Palin campaign. Specifically, the Heart women are upset that the GOP has used their classic "Barracuda" as a theme song for Sarah Palin."

I wonder, though, whether the Repubican Party's use of the song isn't fair use. It's political, non-profit speech. As I recall, Reagan profited mightily off of Born in the USA back in 1984 despite Bruce's mighty protestations against the use. I'm Snapped Shot's worries that the RNC might be blowing money on defending a copyright infringement suit might be misplaced.

In the heart of his 1984 re-election campaign, Ronald Reagan made a speech in Hammonton, New Jersey, and took the opportunity to invoke the name of one of the Garden State's favorite sons.

"America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts," the president said. "It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen."

Reagan -- or his speechwriter -- was likely thinking of one song in particular: "Born in the U.S.A.," the title cut from Springsteen's No. 1 album of the time. . . .

But look deeper, and there was another dimension to "Born in the U.S.A." The song was the ferocious cry of an unemployed Vietnam veteran.

"Down in the shadow of the penitentiary/Out by the gas fires of the refinery/I'm 10 years burning down the road/Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go," Springsteen sang in a working-class howl.

The singer wasn't amused by Reagan's appropriation of his work.

"I think people have a need to feel good about the country they live in," he later told Rolling Stone. "But what's happening, I think, is that that need -- which is a good thing -- is getting manipulated and exploited. You see in the Reagan election ads on TV, you know, 'It's morning in America,' and you say, 'Well, it's not morning in Pittsburgh.' "

The singer, who spent much of 1984 on a huge concert tour, dedicated "Born in the U.S.A." to a union local at one stop.

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About this Blog

This blog is an ongoing exploration of issues related to copyright and fair use in our contemporary digital culture.The blog began and continued through April 2008 as a class project in Peter Friedman’s Legal Analysis & Writing classes at Case Western Reserve University of Law during the spring 2008 semester. The students wrote cross-motions for summary judgment in a fictional lawsuit brought by the owners of the copyright to "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)." The Plaintiffs (represented by half of my students) alleged infringement of their copyright in Que Sera, Sera by the KLF, the real-life creators of an actual recording entitled "K Cera Cera."K Cera Cera (mp3) is a recording of the Red Army Choir singing an amalgam of Que Sera, Sera and John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Happy Xmas (the War is Over). The second half of the students, of course, represented the Defendants.In the course of the students' work in researching and writing their summary judgment briefs, the professor and the students posted items here that raise and explore the legal and policy implications implicit in and related to the infringement claim and Defendants' fair use defense.The relevant documents the students had to work from were the following: